


Love You Through It All: Preview

by ShadowObsessor01



Series: Love Through It All: A story of Water and Fire [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: BAMF Billy Hargrove, BAMF Joyce Byers, BAMF Steve Harrington, Billy & Steve & Robin & Dustin & Will start a band, Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Bonding, Billy Hargrove Lives, Billy Hargrove Needs a Hug, Billy Hargrove Redemption, Billy Hargrove Tries to Be a Better Person, Billy Hargrove's Mother is an Angel, Brotherly Steve Harrington & Dustin Henderson, Duffer Brothers - Freeform, Experiment Billy Hargrove, Experiment Rebekah Shore, Explicit Language, F/M, Fix-It, Good Babysitter Steve Harrington, Good Parent Jim "Chief" Hopper, Good Parent Joyce Byers, Homophobic Language, I'm willing to be hired for the job!, Neil Hargrove is His Own Warning, Not Canon Compliant, Original Character Death(s), Protective Parent Jim "Chief" Hopper, Protective Steve Harrington, Religious Content, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington Friendship, Screw Season Three, Steve Harrington Needs a Hug, We are taking Canon and shoving it down the Garbage Disposal., its the 80s, looking at you, they cussed a lot apparently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:34:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowObsessor01/pseuds/ShadowObsessor01
Summary: Preview Chapter for the story Rise.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove & Dustin Henderson, Billy Hargrove & Everyone, Billy Hargrove & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Billy Hargrove & Steve Harrington, Billy Hargrove/Rebekah Shore, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Billy Hargrove, Robin Buckley & Billy Hargrove & Steve Harrington
Series: Love Through It All: A story of Water and Fire [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718737
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Love You Through It All: Preview

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS A TESTER CHAPTER. I REPEAT. A TESTER chapter. 
> 
> HI ALL! I know, I know. Its been ages and a day since I last posted anything. I suck, massively. I'M SORRY! With the whole Covid stuff, work has been riding all of us, hard! Yeah, I got a job! Warehouse work which isn't ideal, but its a job and I haven't lost it through all of this so praise Jesus! I've also lost twenty pounds, whoop whoop! Better than a gym membership.  
> ANYWAY:  
> This is a new story, I know. To my readers waiting for more Madness of Hope, it's coming...eventually. I have to get back into that fandom so it may be a while. Sorry! Right now, its Stranger Things and My Hero Academia. However, this time I have a beta/muse. Say Hi to Sweet Chip everyone and thank her for being my sounding board and beta reader. We spend most of our phone calls laughing so thank goodness for text messages, am I right? LOL LOVE YOU BUNCHES OF OATS CHIPPIE! She'll keep me on the straight and narrow, put my nose to the grinding stone. Sunshine, I need this finished by the time Season Four comes out. Hold me to it please?!  
> Cough cough  
> Right. So I started this story at the end of season three because I hated the fact that Billy died (Screw you Duffer Brothers. I needed a longer Billy Redemption Arc. It would have been glorious, like Steve's hair!) but put it aside for a little bit. Then work got crazy and I need something to occupy my head and some new info popped into my head for it and well...yeah. This is the result.  
> I'm only going to post the first chapter because right now I just want to see what people think of it. So read it and hit me up with reviews. If enough people like it, I'll keep posting. 
> 
> I'm also working on a shape shifter story for this fandom as well. But I'm not going to make it a long chapter story. Just a super long one shot. For now. We'll see. Chippie has been going bonkers over it so that should say something. 
> 
> I love all of you and I pray for all of your safety and health during this time. Stay at home when you can and please, employ common sense when leaving the house!

**CHAPTER ONE:**

**Tranquilizers Are No Fun**

It was a hell of a way to die. Drugged half out of his mind, head pounding from all the knocks it had received this evening, Maxine and all her little shit cohorts caterwauling above him, Billy didn't have two ounces of care to rub together. Neil always did say he would wind up as shit in a ditch someday. Billy always assumed it would be a ditch in California, hopefully close to a beach so he'd at least have the sea salt breeze to send him to his final rest, not six feet under some damn backwoods pumpkin patch in the middle of Nowhere, America with a pack of alien dogs bearing down. Well, silver lining, Neil won't be able to bitch about burial costs. Just stick a headstone above the hole. Even dead, the bastard would find some way to make Billy's after-life torture. Maybe the hick farmer who owns this particular patch could make some money off of Billy's death, give tours of the sight where a California idiot bit the dust.

A mad half giggle bubbled past his lips. Everything going on is absolutely batshit INSANE and Billy wishes he had never opened the damn fridge. He's going to DIE wishing he had never opened a fridge door.

Screw. His. Life.

There had been a MONSTER in the Byers' fridge, mold green and toothy petal face fit to feature Prime Time in a Stephen King novel. Billy, even in his compromised state, could _smell_ the blood permeating its skin, rot and decay thick in the air despite the temperature of the fridge slowing the disintegration of tissue in death. This...thing had some connection to the weirdo group Maxine had gotten mixed up in and as such, now Billy had to get involved. She was his “responsibility” after all. Neil would **murder** him, slowly, brutally, in every way the crazy bastard could dream up, if even a hair was lost from precious Maxine. Creatures from horror novelist nightmares would certainly do a lot more damage to young flesh than simply pulling hair.

Also, Maxine took his car. Billy was NOT happy about that particular tidbit.

Dizzy, constantly seconds away from vomiting his meals from the last week onto the cracked linoleum of the Byers' kitchen, Billy had forced his fuzzy thoughts to decipher the insanity taped to the walls of the single story home. It took longer than he would ever be comfortable admitting, but he eventually figured out the underground tunnel system. If Maxine's “friends” were crazy enough to stuff a demonic creature in a freezer for later (and he so did not want to find out for what purpose THAT idea had been) then the probability of there being more creatures and the likely hood of the teens taking off after them rose. Because clearly these kids were suicidal on top of being completely off their rockers. And everyone claimed HE was the crazy one!

Which, granted, Billy is certifiable, but he's strong enough to handle whatever the world throws at him. Some of the kids looked like a nice breeze would knock them into the next state.

HO~LY SH~IT, Maxine had shot him up with some rockin' drugs!

Billy cackled as he fumbled his way out of the Mad House, tripping over air and missing the final two steps. His face throbbed distantly against the gravel and he knew deep beneath the drugs that his face resembled raw hamburger which would be a _**pain**_ healing. However, his fingers were digging into soil, good and _wet_ earth. Dizzy, drugged, and definitely needing a week long nap, Billy Hargrove had no reason to smile.

He **beamed** bright as a noon day sun and crowed because He. Had. THEM!

It took longer than he would have liked to reach the pumpkin patch with his beloved car idling away in the middle, however, there was literally nothing he could do for his temporarily shit sense of balance except give his body time to sort out the tranquilizer naturally. Which he didn't have now that he was close enough to hear kids screaming in terror while a deeper voice urged them on faster. Billy jogged colt-clumsy to the front of his car and the massive hole illuminated by headlights. A rope extended from the Camaro's bumper into the black depths of the underground. His skin crawled just looking at what should have been a normal hole. Head full of cotton but Billy had ALWAYS trusted his instincts and his instincts screamed to run; run far and run fast until he had hit the sunshine of California. Before he could follow through on his flight instincts, something else caught his attention. Beneath the human screams, another sound emerged. Inhuman shrieking, chittering howls raised every single hair on his body.

Billy was a rabbit being chased by wolves.

A mouse cowering in a field while hawks swooped in the sky above him.

A child hiding beneath the covers from the monster snarling outside his door.

He hadn't realized he had scrambled away from the hole until his back slammed painfully into his car's bumper. Nerve endings firing cleared most of his panic as well as more of the drug. It's incredible what pain will accomplish in the human body. No longer stuck in a primal loop of terror, Billy could finally re-register the sounds coming from the hole as well as the jerking tug motion of the rope next to his hand. Humans were trying their best to escape quickly from underground.

“Man up, Hargrove. Max is in that shit hole and it's your ass on the line if she dies from her own stupidity.” Not the best pep talk in the world, granted, but enough to get Billy sliding into a half kneeled position by the nightmare Hole to Hell where he could grab the back of coats and haul squirming adolescent bodies out.

Maxine was the first out, distinctive by her flame orange hair and the fact Billy was regrettably familiar with carting her around by the scruff like some kind of unruly kitten. She scuttled up until she could perch and pant and stare wide-eyed at the sight of her step-brother crouched over the tunnel entrance. Billy ignored her, too busy pulling the next kid up with one hand while the other prepared to grab the body following once in range. Lucas didn't even register the hand pulling him up was too large to be Max, focused as he was on helping bring Mike through the opening. Not until he and Mike were being shoved towards the car above while a head of matted blond curls poked down the opening, crimson red shirt taut against straining muscles.

“Harrington! Boost him to me!”

Billy's voice echoed through the tunnels, snapping the attention of the duo still in danger towards him.

“WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR BROTHER DOING HERE?!” Lucas and Mike were shouting at Max together, panicking harder because Billy Hargrove was not passed out on the Byers' living room floor like he should have been and they really could not afford to have his crazy on top of Upside-Down chaos.

“I DON'T KNOW, IDIOTS!” Max screamed back, eyes transfixed on her asshole step brother willingly help people he had spent practically every moment of their life in Hawkins, Indiana tormenting. This could not be the same guy who had gone all Michael Myers on Steve earlier this night. And yet.....

Ignoring Maxine is a skill Billy had been perfecting for a few years now; reading people is a survival technique he had down to a science. He couldn't see Harrington's face but he didn't need to in order to see his three second thought process:

Head whipping up at the call, rearing back just as swiftly. Billy plus experience equals bad news.

Head snapping back towards the far end of the tunnel, out of Billy's sight, those hellish cries getting _closer._ Demodogs plus experience equals certain death.

Body swaying slightly to the side from being bumped by a smaller body, shuffling and whimpering in terror. Dustin breathing, terrified beside him.

“ **Harrington**.” Billy didn't say another word, let his voice speak the truth for once. Having only seen a dead creature, hearing their hunting cries alone cemented in Billy the fact he wanted _**nothing**_ to do with a live, healthy one. It would be a terrible, horrible, STUPID way to go from this earth and no one deserved that fate. Not Harrington, and certainly not a kid barely old enough to figure out girls aren't as gross as first believed. Billy extended his hand further, felt how precarious his hold on the lip of the entrance is, and _prayed_ Steve Harrington would trust him despite the circumstances earlier.

Steve stuck the bat in his backpack, grabbed Dustin by his belt and the back of his jacket, and tossed the protesting boy with a harsh grunt of effort to the extended hand of Steve's personal bully before using the recoil from the effort to leap up to the top of the rope. Why he was trusting Billy Hargrove after what he did, Steve couldn't explain. But he did and if it got Dustin to safety, than that was good enough for Steve.

Billy caught the screaming kid and catapulted him from the hellhole with his own roar of effort. Dustin slammed into the still arguing kids, cutting off sentences and releasing groans from suddenly breathless teens. His shoulders and biceps screamed at him (SHIT, what was that kid's family feeding him?!) but all the shitheads were safe behind him and Harrington hung inches from the top of the opening, panting and vibrating but also very much alive. Billy allowed a smile, a rare genuine grin the likes of which he had never graced Hawkins. A small chuckle rumbled from deep inside. This whole batshit situation floored him, but no one had died. No one.

“C'mon, Harrington. Let's get you out of that shit hole before those Hellhounds decide to use your ass as a chew toy.” Billy leaned forward again, hand open and willing to take Steve's weight to safety. Maybe it was the adrenaline coursing through his system or maybe it was the drugs messing with his emotions like it messed with his balance. Whichever the case, Billy couldn't help the playful tone. This would by no means make up even a tenth of what he did earlier, of the monster he had become, but perhaps it would be a start. At least one where Billy could make it through the rest of high school with Steve Harrington.

Whatever Steve may have said in reply, never had a chance to be heard. Billy _leaned_ forward and the ground beneath him gave out.

“SHIT!”

“BILLY!”

“STEVE!”

Seven feet wasn't a bad fall, under normal circumstances. Normally, a seven foot drop posed no issue to Billy's confidence. However, tonight had been a shit storm of bad with hurricane winds of worse. To begin with, he fell in head first, which isn't too difficult to recover from if his equilibrium wasn't shot to hell and there wasn't another whole body taking up space beside him. Secondly, he collided shoulders with Steve which caused the other teen to try and catch Billy only to lose his already precarious grip on the rope keeping him from becoming hellhound chow. Billy knew he was heavier than the other boy and the position they both were in was too awkward for any sort of recovery. Thirdly, he landed on his back which definitely knocked the wind out of his sails but that wasn't the most concerning aspect.

Billy turned his head slowly and came face to hissing petaled mouth with the hellhound he landed on. His eyes tracked a bead of saliva as it dripped from the rippling folds; fixated on the stained _**rows**_ of teeth revealed as the mouth opened like a blooming flower. Nature would never be the same in his eyes _again_.

Blood roared freight train thunder in his ears. His eye sockets physically ached with how wide he forced his eyes open, not daring to lose even a second of sight on this creature and its **teeth**. Distorted voices crackled like a badly tuned radio on the edge of his hearing.

“BiL-”

“OH mY-”

“-Ve! O-aY?”

“-Et UP! HAR-oVE!”

Hands inched his body away from Death, centimeter at a time. Gaze locked on the slowly coiling head, painfully reminded of the time he encountered a rattlesnake in the tall weeds behind their California house, rattling hiss and all. He'd only have one chance...had to time it perfectly....his body cleared the demonic creature.

The hellhound sprung, body twisting beyond natural movement, its mouth wide and hungry.

Billy rolled backwards, steel toed boot flying upwards to hook with whatever passed for a jaw on these things. A furious strangled scream marked the hellhound's passage through the air while Billy used the momentum to get his feet back under him. Spinning, crouched low with fists up and feet planted, Billy took in the damn pack standing further in the tunnel. The creature he had landed on, forever dubbed Football after the way it flew, had found its own feet and roared viciously at him. For something without noticeable facial features, Billy could feel the malicious hatred radiating from it. This thing was going to eat him alive, Big Bad Wolf style, and enjoy every single damn moment.

“What's the play, Hargrove?” Harrington questions, voice cracking like he hadn't finished puberty years ago. Billy wonders why the hell Harrington thinks he has the answers. He really doesn't but he is NOT about to let some freak show laboratory reject monsters get a single piece of his sweet ass without it buying him dinner first. “Any time now would be great!”

The monsters hissed, beginning to slowly stalk forward. Billy crouched down further, snarling right back, covering how he inched one hand down to touch the dirt beneath slimy vines. Index finger drilling carefully, seeking, Billy locked ice chipped eyes with the monster pack and **roared**. And just as he hoped, the pack faltered. Just as he prayed, his finger found wet earth.

Water thundered and waves crashed on sand.

Billy smirked, lips pulling back over shark teeth and wolf ferocity. Let them come. He's the **King** now and these _**puppies**_ ain't worth shit.

“Hargrove?!”

“Yeah, I got a play for ya, Pretty Boy. Gonna need ya to jump high as you can when I say.”

“What will that accomplish?!”

Billy ignored the doubt laying heavily in Harrington's voice. “Grab the rope or ledge and haul your ass out of this damn hole.”

“What about you?! No, no, nonono NO! Hell NO! I hate your guts right now, Hargrove, but no one, not even a grade A asshole like you deserves this kind of death.”

“Awe, you are so _sweet_ , Princess.” Sarcasm had always been Billy's favorite form of humor. And Harrington made things way too easy. “Don't worry about me. I ain't dying in this shit ripoff Wonderland Rabbit Hole.” Fingers hooked and clawed, covered in what he had searched for, strengthening his connection to what he _needed_ , Billy drew his hand forward. It fought him, the gravity and forces he was drilling, pushing, forcing apart to bring his greatest weapon to bear. His hand near vibrated off his wrist with the exertion. He howled, ice gaze wide with manic determination. Demonic dogs backed further away, faces rippling with their snarls yet hesitant to attack this two legged meal that roared its dominance.

Above this strange Mexican stand off, the Party members and their new Zoomer anxiously watched and prayed the older boys would live.

Something gave way and Billy howled again, triumphant feral glee.

“Jump, Harrington!”

“I already told you–“

“JUMP DAMNIT!”

Harrington jumped and the earth surrounding Hawkins swayed.

Billy would never admit this, however, playing basketball with the guy had given him ample opportunity to study Steve Harrington, his movements, how his body reacted to different motions. Such as how high Harrington could jump when he meant it and where his body fell naturally when gravity returned. Billy just needed to be fast enough. If his Camaro said anything, Billy was the definition of fast.

Steve had barely cleared the ground before Billy rolled himself underneath Steve's feet. Knees tucked and practically kissing his mouth, shoulders taking the weight of his body, palms planted firmly on the ground, Billy waited for gravity to do the rest. Seconds passed like hours; Billy ignored the shrieking cries of the monsters charging forward, felt the vibrations of the approaching thunder, bent further forward under Steve's weight and thrust up.

“HOLY SHIT!” Steve screamed in surprise, embarrassingly high pitched as the expected failed landing instead turned into him being rocket launched. Air exploded from him as his chest collided with the ledge; fingers dug into the loose dirt and the kids helping haul him out. Once he managed to pull himself out of Hell, Steve flopped on his back and groaned.

“Ow.”

“You doing okay there, Buddy? How many fingers am I holding up?” Dustin leaned uncomfortably close, three fingers almost jammed up Steve's nose.

“It's about to be none if you don't get them away from my face, Dipshit.” Steve would have laughed at how quickly Dustin yanked his fingers back if Steve's whole everything wasn't flaring hotter than summer heated asphalt. “Help me up, would ya? We still got to get Hargrove's dumb ass out of there. Before he does something stupid, like get eaten.”

“Yeeee....aah, about that....” Lucas' hesitant soft call froze Dustin and Steve. Turning to face the oddly silent remaining three kids, Steve didn't even care if his voice cracked.

“What is going on down there, Sinclair?!”

Mike answered this time, a rare note of begrudging admiration apparent in his voice. “I don't think that asshole needs help.”

Dustin scurried over, curiosity overwhelming him as he shoved his way between Mike and a frozen Max. His eyes blew wide open, darting about frantically, trying to keep up with everything he could pick out in the dim light of the tunnel. A low appreciative whistle escaped him.

“Damn, Max! Your brother is a badass! A total asshole, but also a badass!”

The fiery redheaded girl nodded slowly, too stunned by this side of her step-brother to correct or comment. In this moment, Billy resembled a real life super-hero, fighting off creatures from Hell bare handed. He really was badass.

Once Billy had felt Steve's weight leave him, he pushed up, using his arm strength to throw his own body into the air and over the charging hellhounds. Billy crashed hard, feet first, snapping the neck of his latest landing pad before twisting to snap a tornado kick into the face of a jumper. Earth trembling, thunder crashing, Billy fought as unpredictably as a sea storm. Each kick full powered and maximized for death. Distantly, he could make out voices of some type over the chittering screams but in the end, with black monster blood coating his legs to his knees and adrenaline pumping liquid fire through his veins, Billy didn't give a crap anymore. Petrichor raced thick and wet on the wind barreling through the tunnel, filling his nostrils and sinking deep in his lungs.

The few hellhounds still alive and kicking, paused. Heads lifting, clawed feet shifting nervously, Billy could almost believe they were tasting the air. Good.

“How do you bitches feel about baths? Cause I got a good soak all cued up for ya!” Billy whooped, rejoicing in the spray soaking his back, feeling the earth tremble harder under his boots. The dogs backed away, slowly at first, then faster as water began to flood over the vine covered floor.

As crazy as everything had been leading to this point, Billy loved it when a plan came together. Loved the feeling of water soaking through the leather of his boots and squishing between his toes; the way his jeans hung heavier on his hips the more water drenched them. Water made sense. It was calm or it was rage; it was never commanded but it could be coaxed into obeying. It was the strongest element Billy knew and he loved it for all it's contradictions.

Smiling toothily, gleeful and triumphant and proud, Billy flexed his wrist and pushed his hand forward. Ignored the sudden dousing of ice in his veins and copper flooding his throat. Shit, it had been too long since he had last let loose this severely. Billy wouldn't let any of his sudden wooziness appear on his face (had too much training for that too happen), merely planted his feet deeper and pushed past the pain.

Of course, Billy is himself and the universe loves to screw him over every time something is going right or well for a change.

He hadn't noticed over the cold of the water soaking him through and he hadn't known that there was any danger besides the hellhounds. But it became painfully obvious he should have pulled a Harrington and _kept moving his_ _ **feet**_ **.** One of the vines he had carelessly disregarded as being mere vegetation had coiled its way up his leg, slow and predator like. Billy hadn't felt a thing, drunk on his success, pushing his beloved element forward to sweep away his enemies in the tide. Silk wet coldness flowed around him, brushing against his shoulders and back like a content cat.

Hellhounds screamed.

Water hissed and roared.

The vine snapped taught and yanked him off balance. Billy lost his control and the water closed around him before he could scream.

High above, Max screamed as she lost sight of Billy in the raging black waters flooding the tunnel.


End file.
